 Islam my dear friends does not dance sports obviously it does not say that sports is haram on the contrary Islam encourages sports Islam encourages exercise we have a hadith that says teach your children three things three things teach them number one horseback riding number two swimming and number three sword fighting or throwing arrows which is is it called archery archery three things that are recommended swimming horseback riding and archery or sword fighting of course not for violence don't let don't think that Islam is doing this to encourage violence and to teach our children violence no this is exercise I wish I mentioned one which I'll mention one out of self-defense this is one hadith another hadith says Allah loves a believer that strong not just spiritually strong of course spiritually strong and physically strong Allah loves a a believer that's physically strong physically fit that is fit and in Resalat al-Hukuk by Maam Zul al-Aabdeen Ali Salam he says وَإِنَّ لِبَدَنِكَ عَلَيْكَ حَقَّ Your body has a right on you go and exercise don't let your body be weak your body has a has right go and exercise be fit the Quran says قُلْ سِيرُ فِ الْأَرْغْ say walk on earth the Quran encourages us to walk this is a form of exercise one shufi manakibihah وَقُلُ مِرَسْقَ and walk in Allah's vast lands and eat from His sustenance walk this is a form of exercise and the story of Yusuf and Yaqub the verse that we began with in the beginning of the speech when the children of Yaqub took Yusuf they took him for what they said we will go we would like to play sports قالوا يا ابانا إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقْ we went to race we were racing we were exercising we were playing sports Yaqub did not tell them this is haram this is wrong these are children of prophets children of prophets are exercising they're playing sports they're racing is there something bad of course not why does Islam encourage sports and exercise three reasons number one to stay fit and to stay healthy when you exercise or when you play sports you will be more healthy you will be more fit you will be able to worship Allah better who can worship Allah better someone who's tired and his bones hurt him it could barely walk or someone who's fit someone who jogs every day someone who's healthy who can worship Allah better who can go to Hajj every year and perform Hajj those that are old those that are unhealthy those who don't exercise when they go to Hajj they have a hard time that is why people that are not fit not healthy they have a hard time going to Hajj while those who are fit and exercise they enjoy going to Hajj because in Hajj there's a lot of physical activity they will enjoy it it's going for a ziyarah walking during the arba'een from Najaf to Karbala which has become a tradition now many of followers of the al-bayt they go and what who you have to be fit if you are not fit you cannot engage in any of these acts praying salat al-layl you have to be fit you have to be healthy otherwise if you're not fit if you have to sleep at 10 p.m you can't stay up you're not physically fit you will not be able to pray salat al-layl no fasting if you are not physically fit you cannot fast if you are ill if you did not take care of your health if you didn't exercise you will not be able to fast thus in order to stay healthy and to worship Allah better this is one number two self-defense self-defense you never know who will attack you you will never know who will try to kill you or beat you or stab you or maybe sometimes you have an enemy that will attack you personally and sometimes you have an enemy that will attack your country like our countries isn't aren't our countries attacked every day in Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon our countries are attacked out of self-defense Islam says be healthy exercise learn how to fight with swords learn how to ride horses and this was an example riding horses today if we don't ride horses if it's not a common exercise let's do the common exercises of today if today there's no swords what other things are there use it out of self-defense not to attack others don't get me wrong not to attack not to initiate an attack but out of self-defense in Iraq if our youth had exercised and were in shape and were fit when we have such massacres like at camp spiker when 1700 Shia youth they were slaughtered and they were beheaded and they were killed when we have such a massacre no it's because our youth were unfit unequipped and when you're unquipped you lack courage as well you will lack the courage but when you're fit when you're in shape you also develop the courage to fight your enemy this is a this is a point that we have to pay attention to number three islam encourages us to stay fit to look good for our spouse look good for your wife for your husband instead of growing berries this this big and your wife might ask for a divorce islam says remain fit a wife looks good for her husband and a husband looks good for his wife go and exercise there's some people that only exercise during the first few years of marriage but after 10 years no everything changes there's a belly he starts losing his hair he doesn't care they uh they just stop caring the hips the shoulders everything multiplies by 10 islam says be in shape if you don't do it for yourself do it for your spouse do it for your wife do it for your husband this increases the intimacy this will reduce the amount of divorces in our communities one of the problems one of the reasons of divorce is there's there's no intimacy there's no attraction between the husband and the wife there is in the first couple of years but after 10 years they're not attracted to each other because they start caring islam says no exercise being shaped look good for your spouse so that uh so that the intimacy remains unfortunately we middle easterners we don't have this culture of exercise we don't here in the west it exists i remember when we used to live in the united states i would wake up at six in the morning to go to university i would see our neighbor he was a seven-year-old man he would get up and jog in the morning i was young i wouldn't do it i wouldn't be in the mood to get up and jog at six in the morning but a seventy-year-old man gets up and jogs do you see anyone jogging in Iraq do you see anyone jogging in Afghanistan at six in the morning do you see anyone running no the only time they run if they hear about a bomb about to explode they start running that's the only time you don't see them jogging or exercising